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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29384427">This Bird Has Flown (Norwegian Wood)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/urlocalgaygrannie/pseuds/urlocalgaygrannie'>urlocalgaygrannie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>One Direction (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A lot - Freeform, Angst, BEST FRIENDS GOALS, Big misunderstandings, Coming of Age, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Harry Is Oblivious, Harry Styles Loves Louis Tomlinson, Harry is an idiot, Kinda, M/M, Misunderstandings, Shy Harry, Slow burn!, a lot of beatles stuff, a lot of getting to know the characters, closeted au, everyone is nice in the end dw, harry brings a video camera to school, harry has mommy issues, harry hates the beatles, harry is dumb sometimes, harry likes fleetwood mac, louis is a sweetheart, louis loves harry, louis loves the beatles, louis understands, louisflirts, minor ziam, niall and harry are best friends goals, nineties au, okayso, zayn and liam flirt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:29:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,509</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29384427</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/urlocalgaygrannie/pseuds/urlocalgaygrannie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry brings a video camera to school and accidentally films Louis, and accidentally falls in love.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik/Liam Payne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>This Bird Has Flown (Norwegian Wood)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>TW! homophobic slurs later on!!<br/>The chapters will always have the title of a song, enjoy!!<br/>all the love,<br/>Marie</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry wasn’t like most kids his age, or so he liked to tell himself. His sun was in Aquarius, after all. Though he has convinced himself that he is special, his life thus far has been like every average sixteen-year old’s. It’s 1996, and his blaring alarm wakes him up for the first day of junior year. As he stumbles out of bed in the sight of a mirror, he thinks about what a cliché his life is, and how he desperately wishes it weren’t. He wears the same outfit he has been almost the entirety of the summer (jeans, cuffed, a graphic tee-shirt and a flannel). Harry takes an apple from the dining table, kisses his mom goodbye, and walks on over to his best friend’s house, right across the street. </p><p>‘Niall! Niall! Niall! I’m heeeere!’<br/>
When the house remains eerily quiet, no lights on, no stumbling in the hallway, and the front door locked, Harry sighs to himself.<br/>
‘Every single year...’, he mutters as he walks around the house, climbs the tree in front of Niall’s bedroom window with ease, and knocks on the Irish boy’s window:’NIALL!’</p><p>A devilish grin creeps on the face of the boy, seemingly still fast asleep, as she creeps out of his bed which he knows is not in Harry’s sight.<br/>
‘I swear to god, Niall, one day I’ll actually take off without you. I’ll break the window of your car, I’ll go to the grocer- ‘<br/>
‘GOTCHA!’, Niall yells as he pops up right in front of Harry’s sight, who was peering into Niall’s window but apparently missed Niall sneaking right in front of him to scare him. </p><p>‘YOU WANKER! I could’ve fallen down, Niall! One day, I’ll fall down, and you will STOP LAUGHING!’, despite the anger sounding through his voice, Harry is laughing now, too.<br/>
Niall opens his window to let the taller boy in, still chuckling. Niall’s room is painted a bright blue, walls filled with boyband posters, shirts, pants, shoes and magazines all over the floor and a neat stack of cd’s on his bedside table. Harry tumbles into Niall’s room:’ Should’ve seen your face, Hazz. Should’ve seen your face… I should really start filming my pranks, maybe my dad still has a video camera in the garage, maybe I could have a look round for it right now…’</p><p>‘yeah, yeah, Niall, we should hurry up because it’s eight and you’re not dressed yet, and I’m guessing you haven’t had breakfast?’<br/>
‘Nope, and nope…’<br/>
Harry sighs, still smiling. He’s actually very fond of Niall, he just won’t admit it to his face. ‘Get dressed, I have pop tarts you can eat in the car. GO!’<br/>
‘Yes, mummy.’<br/>
Harry slaps the blond boy on the back of his head, making his way downstairs, to the garage. </p><p>Niall and Harry have been best friends, for what seems like ages; in fact, it has been ten years. They met when Niall moved to Holmes Chapel from Ireland, and Harry was curious to know who the little boy across his house was. It was an instant connection, and when their mums became best friends, too, their childhoods were filled with peanut butter, holidays taken with the two families and laughter, always. </p><p>‘Okay, here I am, here I am, let’s get Sally out of here!!’, Niall yelled, as he came running from down the stairs, towards the car (Sally was a red fort escort Niall had gotten for his birthday) Harry had already started.<br/>
‘Some radio, Nialler?’<br/>
‘Yes, just make sure it’s not Bryan Adams, there is truly no way to escape that guy, every single radio station plays that stupid song…’</p><p>As Harry drove Sally swiftly out of the garage, he started the car’s radio system, and stopped spinning the little wheel on the car radio as soon as he heard the intro to ‘(everything I do) I do it for you’: ‘this is for earlier this morning, Nialler!’<br/>
Rolling all of the windows down and the music all the way up, Harry made Niall turn a crimson red. ‘You bastard. You better turn that shite down when we get to school because there is no way in hell I’ll ever let you ride my car if you don’t, Styles.’<br/>
Harry merely laughed, belting along to the chorus. </p><p>‘think about your history presentation due by the tenth, that is your only reminder!’, Ms. Johnson shouted right before the bell dismissed the class and a chorus of chairs scraping the floors and unmotivated mutters filled the classroom. </p><p>‘Can you believe it? Ten days? That’s it? That should be a crime, it should. It is not the middle ages anymore, they could try to actually let us live for one second, even if it’s just September, but no. No, school thinks that’s just a bit too much, huh?’, the pale, dark-haired boy with curly hair that sat next to Harry ranted, to no one in particular.<br/>
‘yeah… Are you alright, mate?’, Harry responded, not sure what a more appropriate constitute could be. </p><p>‘Li! Can you please try and loosen up! You let school take away so much of your life, it’d be easier if you’d ease up a bit, yeah?’, the raven-haired boy that sat in front of Harry turned around to face the stressed boy, and woah, were those eyelashes natural? </p><p>‘I’m zayn, this is Liam, he gets a bit overwhelmed sometimes, don’t pay any mind to it’, Zayn turned to Harry, offering his hand.<br/>
Harry shook it:’ I’m Harry, Harry Styles’, he faced Liam: ‘Don’t worry about it, do you want some help with the presentation?’<br/>
‘That’s alright, but thank you for offering, Harry!’</p><p> </p><p>‘And then, he just seriously, like, rammed him in the head, Harry! It was like two madmen; I don’t know what happened to them! All over a girl, Harry! Can you imagine?’<br/>
Harry just responded with a hum, and Niall slapped him against the head.<br/>
‘Auch! What was that for!’</p><p>‘For you not paying attention to your very best friend! You doof!’<br/>
‘Doof?’, Harry asked.<br/>
‘Something I picked up from the new guy in Math today, I don’t know who he is but he’s mad funny.’<br/>
‘A new kid? Has he got any friends here?’</p><p>‘I overheard him saying he just moved here, but he’s a natural charmer, I bet he’s made lots of friends. He’s probably already sitting at the Jock’s table.’<br/>
Harry turned his head, immediately scanning the room, searching for the new kid at the jock table. </p><p>Harry’s never had a person to call his own, but he knew he wanted that the minute he saw When Harry Met Sally, he knew that he wanted nothing more but to love and be loved, he knew that he was a hopeless romantic, desperate for love, and maybe even more desperate to feel loved. He’s always had this fantasy, of some new kid coming to school, and them just falling in love in the blink of an eye, just connecting. He knew that’d probably never happen, and that he would probably end up marrying some girl that was the daughter of some friends of friends of his parents. But a boy could dream, right? </p><p>‘Hiya, Harry, can we sit with you guys?’, Harry turned his head around again, averting his head from the jock’s table after seeing no unfamiliar face.<br/>
‘Uh, yeah sure, Niall, this is Liam and Zayn, Liam and Zayn, this is Niall! He can be a bit loud, but apart from that, great fella!’<br/>
That earned him another blow to the head. </p><p>‘So, what were you guys chatting about?’, zayn asks, seeming genuinely interested.<br/>
‘Oh noth- ‘<br/>
‘We were wondering where the new guy went of to, Liam, you’re in my math class, right? Have any idea?’<br/>
‘Uhm- yes, yes, I think I saw him go into the bathroom. Funny, I had the impression he would be another golden boy, guess I was wrong’<br/>
Harry shrugged, unable to stop fantasizing about the new kid. </p><p>Harry had always felt a bit misunderstood. Of course, he had Niall. But Niall wasn’t someone he could stargaze with, talking about what the point of life is. He wasn’t the person he could kiss, he wasn’t the person that could play with his hair, and he wasn’t the person he could read Edgar Allan Poe to in a park on a hot summer’s night, and he wasn’t the person he could have long walks with in through the rain in the fall. Sometimes, Harry prayed that his person would show up, because, God, he needed it. </p><p>The worst thing about Niall was probably the fact that he was such a girl’s magnet. This was especially a problem when Niall was Harry’s ride, and Sally was gone from the school’s parking lot, along with Niall and a pretty blonde.<br/>
‘Damn’, Harry muttered as he got his Walkman out of his backpack, getting ready for the forty-minute walk to his house. </p><p>‘You idiot! Why’d you bail on me like that, Niall? I had to walk home! WALK, in converse!’<br/>
They were in Harry’s room feet propped up against Harry’s headboard, blood streaming towards their heads, neither of them had an F to give. The walls a light grey color, full of Fleetwood mac posters, books, an analog camera and several guitars.<br/>
‘She was really really hot, Harry, I thought you would understand! God, you can be such a post-hookup joy blocker!’<br/>
‘Just, tell me next time, okay? I was scared for a second when I couldn’t find you’, Harry says softly.<br/>
‘Oh Hazz, I’m sorry, next time I absolutely will!’, Niall said, just as soft, pulling Harry into a hug. Niall knew that Harry was actually a very soft kid, that needed to be handled with care.<br/>
‘Tomorrow morning, I will pick YOU up, how’s that sound?’<br/>
Harry smiled:’great, thanks, Nialler.’</p><p>His thoughts never stopped, during daytime, he could just stop paying attention to the never-ending flood of thoughts, but not at night. The nights were probably the worst of all moments. Staring at the ceiling, Harry wished he wasn’t the way he is, he wished he was a little shorter, he wished he was able to speak a little faster, he wished he was the same, he wished he felt understood, and more than anything, he wished he could get out. He wished that he could leave, leave, leave this town, this state and this country without looking back. </p><p>‘BEEP, BEEP STYLES! GET IN THE CAAAAR!’, Niall yelled so loudly that Harry could hear it all the way in the cellar of his house. A few moments after the initial screams, he heard, a bit quieter:’ IT’S NAILL PICKING HARRY UP, MS COX! DON’T CALL THE COPS!’, Harry couldn’t help but giggle. </p><p>He searched through three more boxes, all the while Niall kept yelling, each sentence getting more and more questionable. He found what he was looking for after Niall belted the second verse of ‘Killing Me Softly’, he hurried his way to Sally before his mom actually called the cops.</p><p>‘You bastard, stealing my ideas’, Niall spat, as he saw the video camera Harry held in his hands.<br/>
‘Might’ve taken some inspiration from some people, yes… I just thought it might be nice to, you know, record some snippets of ‘the best days of our lives’, you know?’</p><p>‘Alright then, you can film me, yeah? Casually driving us to school?’, Niall pulled over, put one hand on the wheel, the other behind his head and looked at the camera with his best shouldering look.<br/>
Harry laughed, but pushed few buttons and pointed the camera at Niall nonetheless: ‘The camera isn’t a smoking brunette, Niall, you can’t use it to bail on me again..’<br/>
‘I can sure as hell try, and don’t think I won’t, you bastard!’, Niall put both his hands around the camera, and leaned in and kissed it:’ There you go, I’ll take her home tonight if you’d be okay with that, Harry?’<br/>
Harry giggled, but also quickly wiped the camera clean:’Yikes, Niall. You better drive us to school, or we’ll be late!’</p><p>Harry went the rest of the day pointing the camera at random people, yelling ‘what’s your favourite sunset and why?’, or ‘Which number is the ugliest?’ (to which most people answered 5, surprisingly), or simply filming people passing through, teachers or birds or trash or anything, really, to try and make this life worth it, to make it seem special. </p><p>By lunchbreak, everyone knew Harry as ‘the camera guy’, and they came up to him yelling ‘eeey film us!’.<br/>
‘Hazz is getting popular, isn’t he?’, Niall said as Harry finally joined him, Zayn and Liam at lunch. </p><p>‘What can I say, what can I say?’<br/>
‘Film us, will you harry?’, asked Liam, shyly putting his arm around Zayn’s waist. Harry nor Niall missed the way Zayn and Liam both visibly blushed from the physical contact, and Niall mouthed ‘oh my fuck’ to Harry as he got his camera ready to film. He shrugged as he pointed the camera to Zayn, asking what his favourite memory in this cafeteria was so far. </p><p>And between sixth and seventh period, it happened; Harry saw him, or rather, his camera (Charlotte, according to Niall) saw him. He was just filming the hallways, until a particular face caught his attention. He was looking through his locker, the inside filled with pictures of the Beatles, Fleetwood mac, and maybe- </p><p>Blue eyes, so blue. Blue like summer skies, bright like the feeling you get on a summer’s night. Golden skin, and oh my god, his cheekbones. Harry recorded the handsome stranger for a few seconds, until he realized how awkward it would be if the blue-eyed boy caught him, so he quickly put down the camera, and pretended to get something out of his locker, that was decorated on the inside with some Fleetwood mac pictures, along with a picture of him and his mum and of Freddie Mercury. </p><p>He saw the shorter boy rush to the bathrooms, and after one second of hesitating, Harry put Charlotte in his locker and started to the bathroom as well. </p><p> </p><p>‘HARRY! If you’re going to ask me something, you can at least pretend to be a little bit interested in my response!’<br/>
‘Huh?’<br/>
‘Hey, are you okay, mate?’, Niall asks, worry sounding through his voice. </p><p>They’re in the cafeteria, and it’s been ten days since Harry saw the blue-eyed boy for the first time. Since that moment, he has found out that his name is Louis Tomlinson, that his family just moved here and that Louis is definitely different, too. The way he moves, like he’s scared someone will look too closely, Harry can see right through the little protective wall of charm and charisma Louis has put up for himself.<br/>
He can, because he’s done the exact same thing.<br/>
He has yet to muster the courage to talk to Louis, chickening out every time he knows he’s in the bathroom too (they’re always in there at the exact same time, maybe they both drink at the exact same times? Is it a soulmate thing?), or when he’s two people from Harry in the line for the juice box dispenser or when Niall and Louis are talking in the hallways, and Harry knows he could very easily just walk up there and introduce himself.<br/>
But he doesn’t, he won’t. He’s afraid that if he comes near a two-foot distance within Louis, he might spontaneously burn up, or maybe just turn the color of Niall’s car.</p><p> He can’t risk it. And he can’t risk Niall casually introducing them, because then Louis will know. He seems like the kind of person that notices things. So, Harry pretends to have something against him, every time Niall or Liam (and Zayn too, lately) bring up Louis, he comes up with the crudest response he can think of, to hopefully scare him of, or scare them enough to never ever introduce them, ever. </p><p> </p><p>‘Yeah, yeah, I’m okay, just sleepy. I didn’t get enough sleep last night, I found my dad’s old Walt Whitman’s poem bundle, I stayed up until three this night reading it.’<br/>
Liam seems unimpressed:’ Watched Dead Poet’s Society, then, did you?’</p><p>‘NO BAD WORD ABOUT THAT MOVIE HERE, LI, I WARNED YOU!’, Niall quickly interjects.<br/>
‘On that note, Harry, Louis mentioned during math today that he stayed up reading ol’ Edgar’s poems!’, Harry rolled his eyes in an attempt not to seem too eager:’Want me to introduce you guys to each other? I think you’d be very good friends, he cannot shut up about that stupid, erm, fleet mac band.’</p><p>That peaked Harry’s interest. He had seen a few pictures in Louis’ locker but hadn’t given it much thought.<br/>
‘Really? That’s so cool, I’d never actually exp- ‘</p><p>‘He does like The Beatles more, though, he says they paved the way to what you can call modern music nowadays’, on the last bit, Niall did what Harry suspects is a Louis Impression (He quirked up in his seat, bounced his legs and started talking with a really exited tone in his voice, it might have been a little bit cute. Might.)</p><p>‘Yeurgh, he likes The Beatles? Really?’, Harry asks, genuinely wondering. He guessed Louis wasn’t that extraordinary either, if he liked them:’If I want to hear some British boys that think they can sing and write, I can just turn on the radio and listen to Oasis. Only jerks like The Beatles.’</p><p>Niall rolls his eyes to that, and Harry notices Zayn and Liam also seeming disgruntled by his reaction; ‘Okay, Harry, we just wonder, what did Louis ever do to you? Every time he comes up, you just seem so repulsed. You know, he could actually use some real friends right now and I don’t want to tell him to sit here with us if you truly don’t like him. So, what’s the deal?’</p><p>Harry doesn’t turn the color of Niall’s car, yet, but it’s a close one. His mind is white noise. It’s white noise when Liam tilts his head at him, when Zayn scoffs and when Niall crosses his arms. SHIT.</p><p>‘Erm, I just, I don’t… Don- Erm, don’t let me stop you from inviting him to sit with- erm, with us?’, Harry stammers, looking at his hands the entire time. Before anyone can respond, he quickly stalks out of the cafeteria. </p><p>‘Huh, so, I guess tomorrow Louis is sitting with us, then!’, Liam says, smiling at Louis from across the cafeteria as he nods. </p><p>‘I should find Harry, that was weird…’, Niall mutters, as he grows worried. That’s when the bell rings, and Niall forgets all about the incident.</p><p>‘So, Zayn, Harry, this is Louis!’, Niall speaks as he pushes the tinier boy towards the seat he’s supposed to sit in. Right next to Harry. </p><p>‘Hi, I’m Zayn! Nice to meet you, Louis!’, Zayn shakes his hand, smiles and then sits back down next to Liam. </p><p>Louis looks at Harry expectantly:’Hi’, he mutters, without so much as even looking up at Louis. Harry’s brain fills itself with white noise again, he’s unable to so much as look up to Louis, unable to meet his eyes. </p><p>‘Hi, Harry right? Niall’s told me so much about you! I’ve been dying to talk to someone that actually likes Fleetwood Mac, what’s your favourite song?’, his tone is friendly, like he wants to know.</p><p>But all Harry can think is run, run, run, this is too scary and too much. Louis Tomlinson was talking to him. Like, actually interested. The boy that hasn’t stopped wandering Harry’s mind since he first saw him, the boy that seems to be a misfit, just like him. </p><p>Harry knows that to run would be the worst thing he could possibly do in this situation. He knows, so obviously, he does exactly that. </p><p>He drops the carrot he’s been holding the entire “conversation” and heads straight outside, all he can think is ‘oh god’ and ‘louiswantstoknowwhatmyfavouritefleetwoodmacsongiswhatdidido’ .</p><p>It’s silent for about ten seconds after Harry’s dramatic exit. </p><p>‘…That was Harry, right? That-that was him? I didn’t just…’</p><p>Niall nods : ‘yeah, that was Harry.’, he turns to look at Zayn and Liam, who both have the same worried looks on their faces. Sure, Harry’s always been sort of skittish and uncomfortable around new people, but just fleeing? That’s nothing like Harry. </p><p>So, it continues, exactly like that, for about a week. Louis joins them, Harry shuts off. Louis doesn’t, Harry is Harry.<br/>
Niall has come to the conclusion that, maybe, maybe, Harry just doesn’t like Louis. Zayn and Liam think the same thing, maybe that’s what clarifies why Harry acts like he does when Louis is around. </p><p>The heartbreaking thing, though, according to Niall, is that Louis seems to know. Every time Louis tries to make conversation with Harry, and Harry shuts him down in some lame way, Niall can see Louis’ eyes stop glimmering at the mention of Fleetwood Mac. And honestly? Niall doesn’t think it’s very fair.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>aaaa okay that was that! Comment what you think?<br/>all the love,<br/>Marie</p></blockquote></div></div>
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